Ethical decision-making in Turkish public administration and policy

Abstract

Defined in the simplest and the most comprehensive framework, decision-making is the process of choosing between alternatives, and it is affected by various factors. Ethics, which is regarded as one of the significant elements among these factors, influences the decision-making process at organisational and individual levels. The subjects of ethics and ethical decision-making are becoming highly crucial in public policy making and implementation processes. Moreover, topics such as the circumstances that have an impact on the decisions of public administrators, and the ethical codes or institutions that help public administrators are major research areas in recent public administration literature. It is within this framework that this paper analyses the efforts to create an ethical policy, which will contribute to the ethical decision-making process of the public administrators in Turkey in terms of legislation, institutional dimension and ethical codes. This study reveals that even though Turkey has taken promising steps to generate an ethical system for public administration and service, there are still essential points to be reassessed regarding the expected transformation in combating corruption and unethical behaviours.